Peter Juul observes for the Wonk Room that much as President Bush really should have sought congressional approval for the Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq, President Obama really should seek congressional approval for the Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq.
Cornyn delays Holder’s confirmation to make sure Bush administration isn’t prosecuted for torture.
In his confirmation hearing, Attorney General nominee Eric Holder unequivocally declared that “waterboarding is torture” and has signaled a willingness to investigate Bush officials. But torture advocate Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is holding up the nomination because he wants to know exactly whether Holder will pursue criminal prosecutions of “intelligence personnel” involved in torture.
“It could well be there will be a request to delay the markup for a week so those questions can be asked and answered,” Cornyn said. “Part of my concern relates to his statements at the hearing with regard to torture and what his intentions are toward our intelligence personnel who were operating in good faith based on their understanding of what the law was.”
Foxman: George Mitchell is too ‘fair’ and ‘even-handed’ to serve as Middle East envoy.
The media is reporting that former Sen. George Mitchell, who handled the Northern Ireland peace process, is being eyed by the Obama administration to be a top diplomatic envoy to the Middle East. In 2001, Mitchell produced a report on the Middle East which recommended that Israel freeze all its settlement activities. Without a freeze, a cessation of violence would be “particularly hard to sustain,” he argued. While Mitchell’s impending appointment is earning a great deal of praise, the Anti-Defamation League’s Abe Foxman complains the diplomat is too fair and balanced for the post:
“Sen. Mitchell is fair. He’s been meticulously even-handed,” said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. “But the fact is, American policy in the Middle East hasn’t been ‘even handed’ — it has been supportive of Israel when it felt Israel needed critical U.S. support.”
“So I’m concerned,” Foxman continued. “I’m not sure the situation requires that kind of approach in the Middle East.”
The American Way
Barack Obama aside, nothing makes me feel patriotic quite like a good European hate speech prosecution:
A Dutch court has ordered prosecutors to put a right-wing politician on trial for making anti-Islamic statements.
Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders made a controversial film last year equating Islam with violence and has likened the Koran to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
“In a democratic system, hate speech is considered so serious that it is in the general interest to… draw a clear line,” the court in Amsterdam said.
Wilders is a boor and a bit of an idiot, but while I understand that this sort of thing happens on the continent it invariably strikes me as incredibly stupid. This isn’t going to end anti-Muslim sentiment in the Netherlands, and it’s not going to help Dutch Muslims assimilate into European society. What’s more, this actually fuels the notion that the existence of a substantial Muslim population in your country is an intolerable threat to liberty. There are a lot of dimensions of social policy along which I think we can learn a lot from northern Europe, but the robust tradition of free speech in the United States is something we can and should be very proud of.
Plenty magazine folds
The January 8 twitter cut to the chase, as tweets do:
Plenty magazine folded, leaving the US without a true environmental magazine. thought bad economy was gonna spur gree n jobs not kill them.
The web is not friendly to newspapers and magazines, even a good one like Plenty in an area of growing interest. Folio mag reported on the 12th:
Despite a last-ditch effort to save its Web site, both the print and online editions of the magazine are being discontinued, the magazine’s publisher, Mark Spellun, said Monday.
This is not a good media trend:
The Green Home Huddler wants interview questions for me
[This post has been written by Dana, winner of the Climate Progress political pundit award.]
To begin with, I’d like to attribute my success in the 2008 election predictions to FiveThirtyEight, a terrific political analysis website to which I was addicted throughout the campaign. The website’s excellent poll analysis was the basis of my own projections. And of course the overall intelligence of the American people to finally elect an intelligent leader with an understanding of the importance of environmental issues ultimately allowed my realistic/optimistic predictions to come to fruition. Like most Climate Progress readers, I’m very excited about the prospects of the Obama presidency, and in fact I’m writing this post on the eve of his inauguration.
Shifting subjects a bit, another of my favorite websites (along with Climate Progress, of course) is the Green Home Huddle.
On flight back to Texas, Gonzales cried, received a kiss from Bush.
Immediately after President Obama’s swearing-in yesterday, George W. Bush and a group of his loyalists — including Margaret Spellings, Karl Rove, and Alberto Gonzales — flew back to Texas for a “welcome home” rally. Cox News reporter Ken Herman caught up with Gonzales, who shared some of the moments from the plane ride:
GONZALES: The last thing he said as he was getting off the plane — he kissed me on the forehead — and he said, “Just stay strong.” [...]
HERMAN: Any tears shed on the plane by anybody?
GONZALES: By me, yeah. There were a few.
HERMAN: Why?
GONZALES: Just pride. Just love and appreciation for the man and what he did, Ken. I feel — being on this trip did a lot for me, in terms of just making me realize — it was a small part, but I played a part in protecting our country, and I take a great deal of pride in that.
When asked whether he still feels “good” about his service, Gonzales replied, “Absolutely. Even better.” Watch it:
Update
Fox News was the only network to carry a live telecast of Bush’s homecoming in Midland, TX.
Foxman: Mitchell is “Fair” and I’m Unhappy About It
I think Anti-Defamation League honcho Abe Foxman better think harder about this:
Some Jewish leaders say the very qualities that may appeal to the Obama administration — Mitchell’s reputation as an honest broker — could spark unhappiness, if not outright opposition, from some pro-Israel groups.
“Sen. Mitchell is fair. He’s been meticulously even-handed,” said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. “But the fact is, American policy in the Middle East hasn’t been ‘even handed’ — it has been supportive of Israel when it felt Israel needed critical U.S. support.”
“So I’m concerned,” Foxman continued. “I’m not sure the situation requires that kind of approach in the Middle East.”
For one thing, I’m not thrilled to see Foxman talking about this issue at all which seems far afield from the ADL’s mandate. But the position he’s taking is also incredibly stupid—nobody comes out against fairness. It’d be one thing to complain that Mitchell is somehow biased against Israel in a problematic way, but Foxman’s complaining that he’s too fair and even-handed. That’s absurd. Fair is a good quality in an envoy.
Obama Should Seek Congressional SOFA Approval
Our guest blogger is Peter Juul, a research associate at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
On the new White House issues website on Iraq, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden state that “Any SOFA [status of forces agreement] should be subject to Congressional review to ensure it has bipartisan support here at home.” We agree with the new administration’s general sentiment goals of consultation, but – as we’ve pointed out earlier – the SOFA contains passages that may contain a defense commitment and necessitate full-blown Congressional approval.
For instance, the SOFA text states:
In the event of any external or internal threat or aggression against Iraq that would violate its sovereignty, political independence, or territorial integrity, waters, airspace, its democratic system or its elected institutions, and upon request by the Government of Iraq, the Parties shall immediately initiate strategic deliberations and, as may be mutually agreed, the United States shall take appropriate measures, including diplomatic, economic, or military measures, or any other measure, to deter such a threat.
When determining whether this passage constitutes a commitment to defend Iraq, the Obama administration should consult a piece of unpassed legislation -– the Iraq Security Agreement Act of 2008 (S.3433) -– that Joe Biden introduced in the Senate last August prior to his selection as President Obama’s running mate. Introduced with the support Senators Bob Casey (D-PA), George Voinovich (R-OH), Jim Webb (D-VA), and the now-retired Chuck Hagel (R-NE), the goal of Biden’s bill was “to ensure that any agreement with Iraq containing a security commitment or arrangement is concluded as a treaty or is approved by Congress.”
Biden and his co-sponsors defined a security commitment as “an obligation, binding under international law, of the United States to act in the common defense in the event of an armed attack on that country.” Similarly, a security arrangement was defined as “a pledge by the United States to take some action in the event of a threat to that country’s security. Security arrangements typically oblige the United States to consult with a country in the event of a threat to its security.”
Biden and company’s definition of a security arrangement is eerily similar to the language contained in the SOFA, and should therefore, under the new vice president’s standards, be subject to some form of Congressional approval -– even if the SOFA doesn’t rise to the level of an official treaty between Iraq and the United States.
President Obama should follow his vice president’s earlier advice and seek Congressional approval for the SOFA. Doing so would help repair the institutional relationship on foreign policy between the executive and legislative branches that has been badly damaged over the last eight years. Sending the SOFA to Congress would send a message that President Obama takes this relationship seriously and means to make it work.
Equally important would be the message a Congressional SOFA approval would send to Iraqis. While the Iraqi parliament has already approved the SOFA, it remains subject to a popular referendum this July. With many Iraqis skeptical that the U.S. will fulfill its end of the SOFA bargain -– withdrawing troops from Iraqi cities by the end of June, and then from the country altogether by the end of 2011 -– Congressional approval of the SOFA may help send a signal that the United States is committed to following both the spirit and letter of the agreement.
F-22 Stimulus
The big trouble with any kind of stimulus bill is that it has to pass congress and there’s virtually no chance of the congressional wringer doing anything other than making things worse. For example, defense contractors’ plans to get a bailout for the financially and strategically absurd F-22 Raptor is gaining steam on the Hill. One good thing about a McCain presidency would have been that a former naval aviator in the White House would have been the deadliest foe ever faced by the U.S. Air Force and its various boondoggles and there’s been some indication that some of the Obama administration’s outreach to McCain has focused on this project.
